Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu | |
Latin: Universitas Studiorum Mickiewicziana Posnaniensis |
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Type | Public university |
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Established | 1919 |
Rector | Prof. Bronisław Marciniak |
Students | 49,038 |
Location | Poznań, Poland |
Website | http://international.amu.edu.pl/ |
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Polish: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Polish abbreviation UAM) is one of the major Polish universities, located in the city of Poznań in western Poland. It opened on May 7, 1919, and since 1955 has carried the name of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. The university has been frequently listed as a top three university in the country.
The university was ceremonially opened on May 7, 1919 (the 400th anniversary of the foundation of Poznań's Lubrański Academy). It was originally called Wszechnica Piastowska ("University of the Piasts" – wszechnica being a less common Polish word for "university"), and in 1920 was renamed Uniwersytet Poznański ("Poznań University"). For the first 20 years it educated students in law, economy, medicine, humanities, mathematics, natural sciences, agriculture and forestry.
In 1920 famous sociologist Florian Znaniecki founded the first Polish department of sociology at the university, one of the first such departments in Europe. In the same period of the university's history, botanist Józef Paczoski founded the world's first institute of phytosociology.
After the invasion of Poland, Poznań was annexed by Germany and the University was closed by the Nazis in 1939. It was reopened as a German university in 1941, which operated until 1944. Staff and students of the Polish university, some of them expelled by Germans to Warsaw, opened an underground Polish "University of the Western Territories" (Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich), whose classes met in private apartments (see Education in Poland during World War II). Many of the professors and staff were imprisoned and executed in Fort VII in Poznań, including professor Stanisław Pawłowski (rector in the years 1932-33). The Polish university reopened, in much smaller form, after the end of World War II. In 1950, the Medical Faculty, including the Dentistry section and the Faculty of Pharmacy, were split off to form a separate institution, now the Poznań University of Medical Sciences. In 1955 Uniwersytet Poznański adopted a new patron, the 19th-century Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, and changed to its current name.